CREATING GORGEOUS IPHONE ICONS AND THEMES: TUTORIAL

You may have seen people posting screenshots on Facebook of really adorable iPhone screens and today I'm going to tell you how to do it WITHOUT jail-breaking you phone!

First, I must warn you that you only download the following app after reading the reviews.  There have been some complaints about this crashing people's iphones but I've had mine jazzed up for over a week now and had absolutely NO issues what-so-ever.

So this is a screenshot of my homepage on my iPhone.  Ignore the 299 unread emails.  I'm sadly not that popular but I am a target for spam and unfortunately not very tidy in my inbox.

I absolutely LOVE the pretty icons for my apps and actually struggled to decide which ones to use because there is such a variety!

So first, what you need to do is download the app CocoPPa

It's completely free to download - which is awesome!

You'll be taken to a screen like this.  You can view icons, wallpapers and stamps for your phone and basically, what this app does is allow you to use these icons by creating shortcuts for your apps.

DO NOT DELETE YOUR ORIGINAL APPS!

Because the icons are only shortcuts, you need to keep your original app otherwise you will delete the whole thing.  What I did was put my original apps into folders on the second page of my home screen and displayed my pretty icons (the shortcuts to the real apps) on the first page.

So to begin with, let me show you how to set up an Instagram icon!

First, you need to find the icon you want.  You can use the search features on the 'Icon' page to search 'Instagram'

This will bring up pages of icons made by users for you to choose from.

Once you have decided which icon you would like, you will come to a screen like above.

Click 'Set up Link'

Now you'll need to click 'App Search'

Type in 'Instagram'

Select the Instagram app which you have from the list of results.

You have the option to add a gloss effect to the app.

Click 'OK'

Now you need to add the icon to your homescreen.

Follow the instructions on the screen.

Once it has been added to your phone, you can move the new icon to your home page and pop the original app into a folder on your second page.  Remember, if you delete the original app, you delete the whole thing!

Some of the original iPhone apps can't be changed unfortunately, such as the Phone app and a few others and most of the original iPhone apps can't be changed by searching for the app as we did for Instagram.  However, there is another trick that you can do to make icons for some of the original apps.

When you have chosen your app icon for an app that isn't supported by the cocoPPa app (you'll know which ones aren't supported because it won't be in the app search results), this time you're going to select 'URL' instead of 'App Search'

You can then manually add the iPhone's original app URL link.

Here is a list of these URLs:

Safari: http://www.google.com
Maps: maps:
SMS/iMessage: sms:
Mail: mailto:
Music: music:
iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/
App Store: http://AppStore.apple.com/
Photos: photos-redirect://
Videos: videos:
Calendar: calshow://
Passbook: shoebox://
Game Center: Gamecenter://

Once you've entered the URL, simply follow the instructions on screen like we did for the Instagram app above and when all of your icons are complete, it's time to choose a wallpaper.


Endless choice of gorgeous wallpapers!

I really love the shelf styled wallpapers!

What I did for extra customisation with the gorgeous wallpapers I found was add some of them to my contact's photos so that each time my phone rings, I'm greeted with a different pretty pattern.

There is so much choice, it's difficult to decide what to pick so be prepared to be doing this for a good few hours.  I spent 3 when I did mine... Oops!

And finally, why not customise your lock screen too?  Many fo the wallpapers feature ones made especially for the lock screen.

Saving the wallpapers is super easy.  You just click to save them to your phone and set them up as you would normally.

Not only does the CocoPPa app allow you to design your iPhone with gorgeous icons & wallpapers, it also allows you to set up a profile and follow other users.  I haven't really experimented with the community side of things, but it's a good way of sharing your screenshots and following designers you love.

So, some important tips to remember:

1.  Do NOT delete the original app!

2.  If you try to use CocoPPa's in-app change for your 'Phone' or 'Messages' app, you will only be able to select ONE phone number per icon for both of them so it's best to just avoid doing this all together.

3.  There is NO way of changing the the following app icons at this current time that I'm aware of

Camera

Notes

Settings

Phone

Facetime

Contacts

Newstand

Weather (original iPhone app)

4.  Make sure you are comfortable doing this before you begin.  There are some really bad reviews out there and I'd hate for you to crash your phone!

So, there it is.  A tutorial for you to make your iPhone pretty as pie.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments section of this post.  All the best!